Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren vohglah bahm. Here, I wanted to let you know
Speaker 1: at the top here that we're talking about mental health today,
Speaker 1: So if you're not up for that, take care of yourself.
Speaker 1: But okay, a we as a society don't talk enough
Speaker 1: about mental health. It's totally normal for all of us
Speaker 1: to find ourselves feeling down or worried sometimes with the
Speaker 1: state of the world around us. I think it was
Speaker 1: a little strange if you never did. But what about
Speaker 1: if those feelings persist, grow to be overwhelming, maybe affect
Speaker 1: your work or studies or relationships, or maybe make it
Speaker 1: feel difficult to get anything done. That might be depression.
Speaker 1: Just like any other health issue, depression can manifest differently
Speaker 1: in each of us, varying in severity and symptoms, and
Speaker 1: therefore solutions for it can vary too. Also, as with
Speaker 1: many things about our weird and wondrous human bodies, researchers
Speaker 1: aren't entirely sure how depression works. Today, let's talk about
Speaker 1: what we do and don't know about this branch of
Speaker 1: mental health. First off, depression is a broad term. Health
Speaker 1: professionals can diagnose different flavors of depressive conditions based on
Speaker 1: a person's age, when and how and how frequently symptoms appear,
Speaker 1: and whether the person has any other mental or physical
Speaker 1: health issues going on. The definition common to all of
Speaker 1: these is a measure of sadness, emptiness, or irritability that
Speaker 1: impedes your capacity to function. More specific symptoms can include
Speaker 1: loss of interest and usual activities, a withdrawal from family
Speaker 1: of friends, feelings of guilt, hopelessness, helplessness or worthlessness, changes
Speaker 1: in sleeping habits like being unable to sleep or sleeping
Speaker 1: too much, fatigue and lethargy or hyperactivity in restlessness, changes
Speaker 1: in eating habits leading to weight loss or weight gain, indecision,
Speaker 1: difficulty concentrating or forgetfulness, persistent pains that don't respond to treatment,
Speaker 1: like headaches, stomach aches, or digestive problems, a worstening of
Speaker 1: other conditions like arthritis or diabetes, and or thoughts or
Speaker 1: actions towards self harm or death. That's a lot of
Speaker 1: symptoms and a bunch of contradictory ones, and no two
Speaker 1: people will have the same ones to the same levels
Speaker 1: of severity. But if someone experiences five or more of
Speaker 1: these symptoms for over two weeks that might be diagnosed
Speaker 1: as major depressive disorder. If someone experiences just a couple
Speaker 1: of them, but for a couple years running, that might
Speaker 1: be what's called persistent depressive disorder. There are also specifications
Speaker 1: that can help diagnose forms of depression in someone going
Speaker 1: through prolonged grief, or someone who has particular trouble the
Speaker 1: week before their menstrual cycle or during certain seasons of
Speaker 1: the year, or someone with symptoms tied to another medical condition,
Speaker 1: or a child or adolescent who's struggling. You can experience
Speaker 1: depression once in a lifetime, brought on by a single
Speaker 1: stressful event, or it can recur throughout your life. There
Speaker 1: is no single cause for depression, though research does suggest
Speaker 1: four factors from which it likely results, often in combination. Genetic, biochemical, psychological,
Speaker 1: and environmental. Scientists haven't found a gene for depression, but
Speaker 1: they have seen evidence based on family histories suggesting that
Speaker 1: there may be a genetic link. Children of people with
Speaker 1: major depressive disorder are more likely to experience depression than
Speaker 1: the general population. Something in the way those children are
Speaker 1: raised could have an influence, but research has shown that
Speaker 1: social and family environmental factors are less important than genetic ones. However,
Speaker 1: because depression also occurs in individuals without family histories of
Speaker 1: the condition, we continue to study additional factors. Other research
Speaker 1: with magnetic resonance imaging has revealed differences in the brains
Speaker 1: of people with depressive conditions. People with depression have abnormal
Speaker 1: levels of sub neurotransmitters, which are chemical messengers between cells
Speaker 1: and the brain, in between the nervous system and other
Speaker 1: cells in the body. Having enough of these chemical messengers
Speaker 1: helps us process and regulate our mood and memory and
Speaker 1: behavior in complicated ways that we don't entirely understand yet.
Speaker 1: Researchers have honed in on three in particular, serotonin, neuropinephrine,
Speaker 1: and dopamine. Psychological factors also come into play. People with
Speaker 1: certain characteristics such as pessimism and low self esteem have
Speaker 1: a tendency to develop depression, and stressful happenings such as
Speaker 1: relationship changes, illness, financial problems, or any major life event
Speaker 1: like a move or a job change can trigger a
Speaker 1: depressive event. Again, it's not straightforward or simple. The onset
Speaker 1: of depression frequently occurs from a combination of these causes.
Speaker 1: Depression is highly treatable, but one of the complications of
Speaker 1: depression is that you don't always want to talk to anyone,
Speaker 1: or that you feel guilty about feeling sad. Wrapped up
Speaker 1: in all this, there's still some misplaced social stigma about
Speaker 1: mental health, which is why I'm doing this episode. It's
Speaker 1: just part of our health. There shouldn't be any shame
Speaker 1: in it. The first step toward getting help is to
Speaker 1: talk to a health professional. If you have a primary doctor,
Speaker 1: a family doctor, or other medical caregiver who you trust,
Speaker 1: they're a great place to start. Though, if you don't,
Speaker 1: and there are lots of online services and local organizations
Speaker 1: that are designed to get you on a path to
Speaker 1: diagnosis and treatment. There's no easy test like a blood
Speaker 1: panel or X ray. However, doctors may sometimes order lab
Speaker 1: tests for things like thyroid or heart or brain conditions
Speaker 1: to make sure that no more immediately serious physical disease
Speaker 1: is causing depression type symptoms that would require its own treatment. Generally,
Speaker 1: a health professional will ask you about your and your
Speaker 1: family's medical history. Then they'll talk with you about your
Speaker 1: physical and social and psychological symptoms and your mood, determining
Speaker 1: what symptoms are present when they began, and your general
Speaker 1: state of mind. They might use a written or spoken
Speaker 1: diagnostic questionnaire. Researchers have come up with a bunch of
Speaker 1: different ones that can quickly, easily and accurate lea score
Speaker 1: how serious a person's symptoms are, since those symptoms can
Speaker 1: be difficult to self report. Once you have a diagnosis,
Speaker 1: there are lots of different treatment options because mental health
Speaker 1: is highly individual, but what works for any given person
Speaker 1: can vary. It can take some time to determine what
Speaker 1: works for you, but over eighty percent of people who
Speaker 1: are treated experience improvement. Effective and common treatments for major
Speaker 1: and chronic depression are antidepressant medications to relieve symptoms, and
Speaker 1: talk therapy to learn effective coping methods, or a combination
Speaker 1: of the two. Antidepressant medications help to normalize levels of
Speaker 1: those mood regulating neurotransmitter chemicals in the brain. The most
Speaker 1: common medications these days because they tend to be pretty
Speaker 1: effective and not have too many negative side effects, are
Speaker 1: SSRIs that stands for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Basically, they
Speaker 1: work by preventing your body from reabsorbing a molecule of
Speaker 1: serotonin after it's transmitted a message, so that serotonin molecule
Speaker 1: can keep on keeping on in your brain. There are
Speaker 1: other reuptake inhibitors for norbinephrin and dopamine and other antidepressants
Speaker 1: that work in yet other ways. Type of medication may
Speaker 1: work better than another from person to person, and sometimes
Speaker 1: it takes a few tries to find one or a
Speaker 1: combination that works well. Talk therapy, also known as psychotherapy,
Speaker 1: can be used in conjunction with medication or solo. It
Speaker 1: involves talking through symptoms, behaviors, and situations with a mental
Speaker 1: health professional. There are two main types most common today.
Speaker 1: Cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT is meant to teach you
Speaker 1: new ways of thinking and behaving, and interpersonal therapy or
Speaker 1: IPT is meant to help you understand and work on
Speaker 1: personal relationships and social behaviors that may be contributing to
Speaker 1: your depression. Just as with medication based treatments, can take
Speaker 1: a few tries to find a talk therapist or a
Speaker 1: course of therapy that works for you. For a science podcast,
Speaker 1: all of this is infuriatingly inspecific, just whibbly wobbly, brainywhiney.
Speaker 1: Lots more research is being done into the complex soup
Speaker 1: of conditions that creates our mental health. Hopefully in the
Speaker 1: future we'll have more precise answers. In the meanwhile, if
Speaker 1: you're worried about yourself for a loved one, please remember
Speaker 1: that even with everything we don't know, depression is real
Speaker 1: and clinical and highly treatable. It can get better, and
Speaker 1: there is nothing wrong needing a little help. Today's episode
Speaker 1: is based on the article how Depression Works on how
Speaker 1: stuffworks dot Com, written by Maria Tremarky. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production by Heart Radio in partnership with how stuffworks dot
Speaker 1: Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts
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